Abstract
Purpose
Postural reactions (PR) of standing subjects have been mostly investigated in response to platform displacements or body perturbations of fixed magnitude. The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between PR and the peak force and impulse of the perturbation.
Methods
In ten healthy young men, standing balance was challenged by anteriorly directed perturbations (peak force: 20–60 N) delivered to the back, at the lumbar (L) or inter-scapular (IS) level, by means of a manual perturbator equipped with a force sensor. Postural reactions as expressed by the displacement of the center of pressure (CoP) were recorded using a force platform. Two sets of 20 randomly ordered perturbations (10 to each site) were delivered in two separate testing sessions.
Results
The magnitude of CoP response (∆CoP) was better correlated with the impulse (I) than with the peak force of the perturbation. The normalized response, ∆CoPn = ∆CoP/I, exhibited good reliability (ICCs of 0.93 for IS and 0.82 for L), was higher with IS than with L perturbations (p < 0.01), and was significantly correlated with the latency of CoP response: r = 0.69 and 0.71 for IS and L, respectively.
Conclusion
These preliminary findings support the concept that manually delivered perturbations can be used to reliably assess individual PR and that ∆CoPn may effectively express a relevant aspect of postural control.
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Data availability
The data sets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author upon a reasonable request.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- CoP:
-
Center of pressure
- I:
-
Impulse
- ICC:
-
Intra-class correlation coefficient
- IS:
-
Inter-scapular
- L:
-
Lumbar
- PF:
-
Peak force
- PR:
-
Postural reaction
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- t 0 :
-
Time at which the perturbation starts
- t e :
-
Time at which the perturbation ends
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Acknowledgements
This research was partially funded by 'Proof of Concept' Project 2018, the Politecnico di Torino. The authors are grateful to Raffaele Pertusio for his technical assistance in the preparation of the experimental set-up.
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Design and conception of the work: ZD, DM, WF, CF, AM, FD, and SR; Data collection and analysis: MP, MQ, and CdB; Interpretation of the data: ZD, MP, CF, CdB, and SR; Drafting the manuscript: ZD, MP, and SR; Critical revision and approval of the final version of the manuscript: all authors. All authors agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
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A patent application which includes part of the information presented in this article has been presented by some of the authors (ZD, CDB, DM, WF, CF, and SR).
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Dvir, Z., Paterna, M., Quargnenti, M. et al. Linearity and repeatability of postural responses in relation to peak force and impulse of manually delivered perturbations: a preliminary study. Eur J Appl Physiol 120, 1319–1330 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04364-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-020-04364-y